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IFEOMA OKONKWO 109013008 DR. OHWOVORIOLE ENG 850: NIGERIAN ORAL LITERATURE

TRADITIONAL POETS AS MOULDERS OF PUBLIC OPINION

ABSTRACT What is the place of a poet in the society? What use do we have of them? What tangible contribution can poetry hold of? These and so many more are comprised the questions and attacks made against poetry in its place as the first literature. It seems as if poetry is constantly docked for trial only released for specific functions the society thinks it needs it for and then taken back to court to continue its trial. Poetry has been on the defence since its existence and the situation has not changed, it is still docked. Hate it or love, we cannot do without poetry and the rhythm of life is distorted without it. The position poetry occupied in the traditional era is the focus of this paper.

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INTRODUCTION The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that oral literature, which is an aspect of the oral tradition according to Clement Okafor in his essay Oral Tradition and Civic Education in Africa, has functioned historically as a vital medium of moral and civic education in non-literate societies the world over. Through the ages, oral literature has performed this function by presenting its various genres as forms of entertainment that are designed to inculcate in listeners the social mores and world view of their communities. Poetry has indeed occupied a central place in the life of traditional African societies. Praise-singers, drummers, priests, hunters, masqueraders_ they all had to recite and invent poetry. The family rites connected with birth, marriage or death, the installations of chiefs or religious festivals alike were all occasions for the recitation of poetry. Equally important is perhaps the poetry of everyday life: the young girl pounding yam sings about her lover, the hunter on his way to the forest sings in praise of the animals he is going to hunt. Beier (11) sums up this way of life profoundly when he comments:
In the absence of written language, everybody becomes a bit of a poet himself. Nothing is absolutely fixed, or determined, and everybody is free to add new lines to known songs and poems to suit his own circumstances. Traditional African societies have always had their professional poets , of course, but they are not set apart from the community in the way the modern European poet is. Their creation becomes common property immediately.

In the Nigerian context, the traditional period is largely delineated the time before the White man encroached on the way of life of the peoples occupying the land to a few decades after independence. Unlike the French policy of assimilation which subsumed the native culture, the British indirect rule did not completely decimate the culture of the natives, therefore in places like Nigeria, traditional practises survived until threatened by globalization and the new world order. Nigeria comprising many ethnic groups has an endowed and varying culture. This variation has added to the rich colouration of the cultures of the peoples of Nigeria.

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DEFINITION OF KEY TERMS The key terms in the title are: traditional poets, moulders, and public opinion. Traditional poetry signifies a historical and geographical setting. It also indicates that there is an artiste or artistes as the case may be. To become moulders whether positive or negative, they have to produce a work of poetry that is capable of moulding. This implies content or text. It is public opinion that helps one determine the effects of the performance. This effect is the audience response. It reflects the way and manner that the poetic performance has shaped their lives and their views about lives and the nature of things. The public determines whether respect or disregard is accorded the poet.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Functionalist, contextual and psychoanalytic approaches to oral literature have been employed in grasping a critical understanding of this paper. Functionalism adduces the reasons for the poetic renditions in the society. Undeniably, there are activities in the community that has sustained the use of poetry at various occasions. The praise poetry found in many communities in Nigeria is an example that readily comes to mind. The events and festivals that require oratorical performance has ensured the continuance of culture and secured the job and place of the poet. Imagine the palaces of traditional rulers without praise singers. Applying the contextual approach relies more on content. The context of an occasion or an event determines the type of rendition used, the imagery evoked, words and gesticulations employed etc. Contextcentred elements of the oral ballad functions as oral narrative in society as work ballads (harvesting, sheepshearing, sewing, washing), ritual ballads for different occasions (naming, weddings, funerals), lullabies, childrens play ballads, religious ballads, ballads that report historical or contemporary events, and so on. It also encompasses performance: when the ballads are sung, where, with whom, to whom, and what the audiences reaction is, as well as the sociocultural environment in which the ballads are transmitted. The musicological

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component is important here as well: the different types of melodies and rhythms, singing styles, the influence of tunes on the verse line, and the significance of the danced ballads. The poetic performance whether recited, sung or accompanied by music and dance as is found in many Nigerian cultures has psychotherapeutic function. This performance which include the rendering of a story in some occasions according to Akporobaro (61) helps ease emotional tensions and to express, dissolve and resolve repressed antisocial passions of anger, hatred, jealousy, etc. Poetising about the effects of this negative passions, the mind of the individuals or individ uals who constitute the audience is cured of its neurosis. Neurosis here means a mental and emotional make up that affects the personality of a person and is followed by a distorted perception of reality. For example, a perceived threat from a co-wife in a household may induce the worrier to take drastic actions that will be irrevocable and regrettable, but a poets rendition may affect a change of heart or the person who still takes the originally intended course of action may still go ahead, but cannot deny not knowing the consequences. MODES AND EFFECTS OF TRADITIONAL POETRY An important feature of African oral traditions is their close link with music. Poetry exists almost exclusively in chanted form or as song, and, among West African peoples with tonal languages (for example, the Akan and the Yoruba); much poetry is recited in musical form rather than spoken or sung.(African literature." Encyclopaedia Britannica). Basically traditional poetry is transmitted orally. Its effect on the audience is the focus here. Traditional African and indeed Nigerian poetry though unwritten was not static; rather it was dynamic, changing in response to the historical pressures of time (Gunner, Africa and Orality). Poetry manifested as formal speech communication at birth, bridal, burial and religious ceremonies, catch rhymes by children, chants, lullabies, incantation, initiation songs, invocation, lampoons, war, circumcision, praise and in some circumstances coexisting with music in the form of song, or with instruments, and dance, and thereby generated an almost unimaginable range of genres that enabled and empowered social, political, and spiritual existence. In some instances a specific mode of delivery encoded a states history like the Rwandan ubwwiiru, or the Yoruba oriki which interwove personal and public history and provided poetic vehicle for the powerful as well as for

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the ordinary citizen. Thus this form of poetry demonstrates the different kinds of historicity that an oral form can generate with very different conventions of interactivity from those governing a conventional historical printed text. Such was traditional poetry! History was often encapsulated in the elaborate dynastic poetry of a kingdom, composed and reproduced by specially trained bards and presenting a legitimizing, heroic view of past and present to the people at large. This traditional Bini poem titled The Oba of Benin encapsulates the personality of one particular Oba at a point in time and features of his reign.

He who knows not the Oba Let me show him. He has mounted the throne, He has piled a throne upon a throne. Plentiful as grains of sand on the earth are those in front of him. Plentiful as grains of sand on the earth are those behind him. There are two thousand people to fan him He who owns you is among you here. He who owns you has piled a throne upon a throne. He has lived to do it this year; Even so will he live to it again. (Beier, 41)

The training in some societies was a long and rigorous period of apprenticeship by young members of the families of the poet and a mastery of the vocabulary, imagery and subject matter which formed the traditional basis of any future composition (Finnegan 1970:89).

The praise name is probably the most widely used poetic form in Africa and in Nigeria is no different. It is applied not only to gods but to humans, animals, plants, and towns. Most important in many Nigerian

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communities are the praise names of chiefs and war leaders, as, for example, those of a great Yoruba leader of south western Nigeria:

Adeniji, the Hillock

The bowstring is tough, yet it dwells with men

The granite Hillock that lays itself like a ploughed field.

Offspring of Kotun who has a drinking pot in his stomach, father

Of Adegbemle who has water inside him like a keg.

The aroni sunbird of Moja ogele, Olukoyi, get ready, let us go

To battle!

Isere Ikoyi, offspring of the basket full of iyun beads

Eso does not run away from death.

(Olatunji, 72)

In the above poem, the first three lines are personal to the subject in so far as he bears the name Adeniji. In other words, according to Olatunji those phrases are the alaje for anyone who is called Adeniji. In the fourth line he is traced to his father, Kotun and his son Adegbemle, and reference is made to his pot belly. The remaining lines deal with his lineage, the Olukoyi, the lineage of daring warriors. This man Adeniji hearing these words is roused to ecstasy, and reminded of a brave lineage is inspired to imitate their bravery and even surpass them.

There are numerous other poetic forms. The Yoruba, for example, distinguish between praise names (oriki), the poetry of lineages and towns (orile), oracle verse (ese), hunters' songs (ijala), the poetry of masqueraders (iwi), incantations (ofo), songs (orin), and improvisations (rara). Incantations play an important part in all Nigerian traditions. The Igbo diviner, for example, invokes truth before consulting his oracular bones or other apparatus. A common poetic form is the magic formula, in which the meaning of the words is often

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obscure. These formulas are sacred combinations of words the correct repetition of which, accompanied by the proper ritual is believed to be effective both in curing and cursing. Probably the most elaborate body of poetry is that of the Ifa oracle among the Yoruba. Even the most learned priest is not expected to know it all, and the recital of the most important parts takes a whole night. The poems are accompanied by stories that constitute the mythological or historical precedents by which the diviner judges his client's case. The ese Ifa emphasizes the concept of Ori (destiny). Olatunji (116) explains further: Ori does not encourage fatalism, that is, the state of mind that accepts the immutability of a destiny. This is so because the choice of a good Ori is not necessarily a passport to prosperity. A [sic] man needs good character and hard work to realise prosperity. The man who has chosen a bad Ori can alleviate his misfortune through sacrifice to his Ori. The priest conveys this through the chants that are versified. Since the ordinary man cannot approach Ifa anyhow; his priest becomes his voice to the people, and no one questions his sayings. Imagine the effect on the psyche of a community what a corrupt priest could do. An example of the statements uttered by ese Ifa is seen below:

Ifa divination was performed for Seseega who was the child of

Olabanle who lived with them in Ake.

It was Seseega who bared his head and pressed it on the divining powder.

Could he become numerous in his life?

Could people make a noise in his house?

This was what he consulted Ifa about.

(Abimbola, 1977:54-55)

Every situation in traditional Nigerian life is accompanied by poetry and song. This is where the likes of Branislaw Malinowskis functionalist approach come to play. The Fulani herdsman praises his bull (My cow is dark like the rain cloud in a storm [Fulani]); the young warrior sings of his bride (Neither her heel nor her palm are rough, but sweet to the touch like liver [Fulani]); the widower mourns the death of his wife (What are your wares that they sold out so quickly? [Igbo]).

Okonkwo 8 CONTENT AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PERFORMANCE OF TRADITIONAL POETRY

Many times people think in terms of stories. They understand the world in terms of stories that they have already understood. New events or problems are understood by reference to old previously understood stories and explained to others by the use of stories. We understand personal problems and relationships between people through stories that typify those situations. We also understand just about everything else this way as well. Scientists have prototypical scientific success and failure stories that they use to help them with new problems. Historians have their favourite stories in terms of which they understand and explain the world. Roger Schank asserts that stories are very basic to the human thinking process. The function of poetry is no different. The content of the poetic rendition to an extent determines its ability to shape or mould its audience opinion. Consider these examples: The Ozidi Saga, which is an Ijo epic from Nigerias Niger Delta region, is used to inculcate admirable social behaviour. In this rendering, a group of warrior-lords from Orua, who do not want Temugedege to become their king, assassinate his brother, Ozidi, who is the commanding general of their nation-state. Later, a son is born posthumously to the assassinated warrior. Consequently, even before the boy is born, his grandmother takes Ozidis mother (Orea) to her own home in Ododama. In the safety of Oreamaes home, the pregnant Orea gives birth to her son, named after the infants dead father. The upbringing of this child is specially supervised by Oreame. As is common with such epic heroes, Ozidi develops prodigious strength early in life. Later, he returns home to destroy all those who had a hand in the assassination of his father. As is also the case in most traditional societies, such an act of vengeance is what is expected of a dutiful son. Thereafter, Ozidi engages and vanquishes every kind of preternatural force and monster ranging from the Scrotum King to cannibals like Azema and Azemaroti. His final battle is with the Small Pox King. Here, Ozidi is almost vanquished by his assailant, but once Orea treats her son with the antidote for yaws, Ozidi overcomes even this near-fatal attack. In the end, Ozidis authority is unchallengeable and he lays down his sword when there is nobody else to fight:
Hey, Orea, my mother, my mother, my Mother, my mother! Those who killed my father I have now Taken them all, my mother, mother, Mother, mother!

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Oh, Oreame, my mother, my mother, my Mother! Oreame, you the woman who knows Everything, take my sword, take my Sword, take my sword, take my sword! (Clark, The Ozidi Saga: 387)

Here, the virtues that are dramatized for emulation are Ozidis prodigious strength, his ability to manipulate magical powers, his fearlessness, and his execution of his filial duty to his dead father. What has been demonstrated so far is that traditional societies generally compose legends through poetry about spectacular characters that embody the communities ideals of good behaviour. These are the heroes who are celebrated in the oral literature of Nigeria. In many of the renditions, the heroes are endowed with numerous admirable qualities and are held up to the people for emulation. Occasionally, some people in society manifest socially reprehensible behaviour. Naturally, the communities concerned would not like others to emulate these deviants; hence, the societies lampoon these malefactors through satirical songs, as is exemplified in the following Igbo song, Maritta Ofoka extracted from Egudu and Nwogas Poetic Heritage:
If you want some fun jump the fence to Maritta Ofoka, War! Sorry, my lady, go find who put you in your state, War! My lady, my white sophisticated lady, War! Go find who put you in your state, War! You, quick to abort, will a basket of pepper serve your needs? War! Sorry, my lady, go find who put you in your state, War! If you approach Marittas bed, the stench of Pomades suffocate you. War! Sorry, my lady, go find who put you in your state,

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War! If you get to the ladys bed, her body is playing Udu, War! Sorry, my lady, go find who put you in your state, War! When a young girl marries she says her mates are left-overs, Sorry, my lady, go find who put you in your state,

War!

From the extract above, one can discern that the song mocks Maritta, the wayward girl, who imagines that she is sophisticated and is, therefore, better than all the other girls around her. The song implies that it is her socially repulsive way of life, which results in her unwanted pregnancy. Her portrait here is deliberately made to be so revolting that nobody would want to be like her. The exercise above demonstrates that traditional Nigerian societies use their oral poetry as a medium of teaching their population socially acceptable behaviour or a philosophic outlook of life as seen in this traditional Igbo poem about death.
Every living thing has poured spite on death; Because death has not one friend. Death listens to no pleas. It does not know big or small.

What created death in this world And made it an enemy of everybody? Besides, it is not afraid. Will one go to heaven that kills another human being?

What made death know everybody? It forgets no one. Is it because the eyes of death see the whole world? Or because its legs goes everywhere in the world?

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Why do you not accept money, And allow good people live long? Why do you leave bad people, And allow them do evil with long lives?

We wont forget that your power began in heaven, Where you worked you worked for God. This is because you take to God good people And the bad you ones you give the devil.

Just one more question for you. Why is it that you let a person suffer so much, Then kill when a better life has just begun for the person? This must be why spite has been poured on you.

(Akpa Uche, 4-5) The poem goes on. The poem was recited at a house where mourning was going as a result of the death of the man of the house. There are deep sighs going on as an indication of assent to the poets ruminations as to the nature and embodiment that death is to him. He indicates that today, it this mans turn, tomorrow death could prey on whosoever he likes. None can escape death but bid their time. These words come to shape the accepted views of death to the audience present that represent the community. Another poem taken from the northern part of the country titled: Mat of Shame poetizes about life in general. Not only does it do this, it gives a peep into a little of the northern Nigerians world view.
My orifice, a home to thousand tales. Bees bearing pots of honey For the world to drink. Oh chorus friends, this song of bees.

My songs, my songs. Problems will die. But pretend to be dead, and see who loves you.

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My songs, Truth is more than money. The sun rises early and swallows the thread of darkness on the sky. The moon swims in the ocean of shiny water Splashing shining tides on the ground. Oh, who will swim with me in this water, And be robed in the garment of truthful light!

Our village ballad Sets our feet early on the ground with his salty songs Let your souls touch your hearts , sings he, As you forge on today.

When birds fly Their feathers push air backward. A swimmer reaches the coast By pushing water backward. A day breaks, By pushing night backward. Our bees must open their pots of honey, And push backward their voracious poison!

These bushes invaded with flies, These ghettos must clear To the breeze of lingering freshness of a scent-full air. Our eyes deserve food that gives pleasure to their fastened household, Our legs should walk on the gold of our new floor, Our heads should lie on these diamond beds!

The danger they spread for us, Shall be their mats to sleep! Oh, what a world with a mat of shame! What a person sleeps on it!

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If they make the mat, you tear the mat!

(Almajiri31-36) There may not have any organized formal occasion to have sung this poem, the poem sings at any opportunity he gets. It is accompanied by music. The poem is not just philosophical commentary about life in general, it also political; pouring aspersions on the leaders and those who have the ability to make life better for others but do not. It is an indictment on the individual as well as the community. While the audience go about buying and selling, walking on the streets or whatever activity they are involved in they listen and chew on this words. The appearance of the poet may not amount to much, but the words he sings about are poignant.

CONCLUSION The difference between the oral and the written is not degree, but essence. As Irele says in his essay Orality, Literacy, and African Literature there is a sharp dichotomy between orality and literacy. Specifically, whereas written narratives are transmitted through manuscripts, books, periodicals, broadsides, and so forth, oral narratives are transmitted directly from person to person. The written work, preserved by paper and ink, can be long forgotten, and then suddenly resuscitated in essentially the same fixed form. An orally transmitted poem must remain relevant and meaningful to survive. Since nothing is set down on paper, the same narrative or poem will never be recited twice in exactly the same way. As William J. Entwistle notes, The ballad exists only at the moment of performance. The oral poem is variable, the written poem is fixed. The writer has a deliberative audiencea reader who can pause, speed ahead, or turn back to refresh his memory. The writer can establish his or her own style, handling language in an unorthodox way, using difficult, arcane, wilful syntax, demanding chronological jumps of the reader. The oral poet, on the other hand, must depend on the auditory memory of the listeners. This is an immediate and non-reflective situation, but one way or another, he entertains, informs and educates; using the techniques of conventional diction and versification, fixed formulae, phrases and epithets, rhyme, rhythm, repetition, and parallelism. Even though the continued usage of traditional poetic forms is downplayed, the relevance in the Nigerian society cannot be overlooked. According to Schenb in his essay The Oral Artists Script, it remains a widely held opinion that the traditional artiste in Africa has a role in the society, an

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identifiable role among which is to shape, teach, instruct, criticise and direct, for the reason that he lives within it, lives among his people and is very much part of whatever they are doing.